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NCAA Championship Notebook - 5/15/08

The Stanford softball team left the Farm Wednesday morning and began a journey of more than 3,000 miles to Amherst, Mass. where it will begin NCAA Tournament play tomorrow. The Cardinal left campus shortly after 8 a.m. on Wednesday, and, after two flights, two bus rides and a lunchtime stop in Chicago, the team arrived in Amherst in the wee hours of Thursday morning.

After catching a few hours of sleep, Stanford was up and going again, attending a press conference and getting one last practice in before the real show begins.

The Cardinal will take on Lehigh tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. (ET) at the UMass Softball Complex in Amherst.

 Junior pitcher Missy Penna needs just one more win to claim sole possession of the school's single-season win record. Penna matched Dana Sorensen's record with her 34th win of the year against Arizona State last Friday. Penna needs to pitch just 3.1 more innings to set the Stanford record for innings pitched in a single season.

 Missy Penna needs 28 more strikeouts to reach 400 on the year. She would be just the eighth player in Pac-10 history to do so, and the first at Stanford. Penna also has a shot to become the second pitcher in school history to hit 900 K's this weekend. She needs 41 more strikeouts to hit the landmark.

 Stanford has beat 14 opponents by eight or more runs this season. Every time the team run-rules an opponent from now on, a new school record is set (previous was 13 run-rules in 2005 and 1999).

 Rosey Neill continues her run towards a program record for single-season homeruns. Neill leads the Pac-10 in homeruns (18), is among the top 15 players in the nation in the category. She is just one short of Michelle Smith's program record (19) set in 2005.

 Senior Michelle Smith needs just one more homerun to become the second player in school history to hit 40 in her career. Over her four years at Stanford, Smith has hit more homers than anyone but Olympic gold medalist Jessica Mendoza.

 With every walk, Maddy Coon is setting a new program record for single-season walks. She broke the previous record (33) on Mar. 29 and now has 47 in 2008. As a team, Stanford has walked more times than any team in school history (236). Still just a junior, Coon is 10 walks short of match Sarah Beeson's school career record (115).

 Rosey Neill needs one more RBI to reach 50 on the season. Only five players in school history, including current Cardinal Michelle Smith, have accomplished the feat.

 Alissa Haber, who leads Stanford with 15 doubles this year, is already on Stanford's single-season top-10 list. She needs just three more doubles to find herself among the school's career top-10 in the category as just a sophomore.

 Tricia Aggabao, Maddy Coon and Alissa Haber all have scored more than 40 runs this season. Haber (44) is already one of the school's top-10 single-season leaders, while Coon (43) and Aggabao (42) are both on the verge of making the list.